Recent fuel is crap?

Lately since the fuel prices went up I wouldn't doubt if they are useing more ethanol neither of my saws or trimmer wanted to start the last few days and. Wouldn't stay running all of a sudden took about 10 pulls each usually 2 or 3 on cold even my car anyone else?

think i heard somewhere that a gov't official said something along the lines that "we can't just have people driving around wherever and whenever they want " - maybe bad fuel is part of the plan to that end ??

I drive about 60 miles round trip to The Dalles Oregon to buy non ethanol fuel for my saws and woodsplitter. Last year My splitter
went to crap, would run worth a spit. Took the engine to a mechanic, he said first thing without starting it, "you used ethanol fuel in it" Then he told me to always go to non ethanol stations for chainsaw and woodsplitter fuel. ALso to add Stabilizer to my fuel. No problems since then. Cheaper to go buy 10 gallons of non ethanol at a time than to rebuild saws and splitter. Good luck with finding non ethanol in your area.

Fuel is a huge variable around the country. Even close by areas can have radically different fuel. There's a map out there showing the different regions, etc. Basically, if you score fuel in or near a major metro area, because they will be stricter on emissions, you will either have a hard time finding non ethanol, or not be able to find it at all.

This is also the time of year the refineries switch from winter blends to summer blends, and the stations are milking out the last dregs before refill from the tankers, which will include the most water in the fuel, ethanol or not, all the tanks get some water in them.

Sounds to me like you got some dregs. Go to a variety of stations and ask before filling your cans, when did you get your last delivery.

And look for a no ethanol station. If it is a trip, buy a lot, and fuel stabilizer treat it, and store it in the shadiest coolest place you have, and fill your smaller cans early in the morning when it is the coolest, to avoid losing all the good stuff to vapor. If you hear "kwoosh"! when you open a can, it's too hot, and you've just lost a lot of the good stuff in the gas.

I'm lucky I have one near me so I can get pure gas. I pay more for premium no ethanol, but it is worth it to get some fuel that actually works and lasts more than two weeks.

I happened to ask him the other day when I was stocking up, got 12 gallons in my cans, if he ever got burnt by the distributor and got sold some ethanol fuel and he said yes, right after hurricane katrina he got one batch of it. He called them up after he tested it and ripped them a new one and made them come back and pump his tank slap dry and bring him the real stuff.

If I only needed a few gallons a year for two stroke, like a lot of just casual homeowners, i would just buy the canned premix and be done with it. Expensive yes, but you won't suffer killed off small engines either, and the stuff lasts for years.

Some guys run that avgas 100ll, but that is also a crapshoot, a lot of places won't sell it by the can, you need to have a bonafide aery-O-plane right there to buy it. Some will sell it to any random guy with some cans, some won't. I have heard around my area, they won't any more, they stopped doing that a few years ago. You got a plane, sure, here ya go, show up in your ride with some cans, nope, you ain't getting any. If that is your only option, just ask, they can say yes or no.

Often marinas will have no ethanol gas and they aren't as picky selling it by the can.

Then there's racing fuel...you'll have to research that, never bought any, and there's a lot of variables there.

One member here makes his own pure gas by getting the ethanol stuff, saturating it with water, letting it phase separate out overnight, until you can distinctly see the dividing line, and draining off the water and alky from the bottom the next day. The pure gas will be at the top.

just curious about elsewhere- most of the stations around me the fuel type can be selected at the pump and is dispensed thru a shared hose- so even if I buy nonethanol fuel, which i sometimes do,, i get some crap from the line, and maybe a shared pump ??

just curious - I guess you could pump the first gallon or two into the truck, but i never thought about it before

i buy my fuel at a high volume place and have had good luck so i am sticking with it based on the stories i hear ! Tanker is there daily, which i see as a good thing

Been buying my fuel at the local Marathon for several years. Used to use Shell-Hell mogas until I read (several years ago) the Marathon fuel was 100% American manufactured from American crude.?.? I dunno.

I have long used fuel stabilizer and this past year started using ethanol shield in all of my fuel cans. I usually keep 10-15 gallons on hand and i don't burn a whole lot of fuel. Hell,,I'd hate to venture a guess,,maybe 20-25 gal. a year in my small engines. Probably not half that much. The point I'm trying to make is my fuel sits in the cans quite a lot, for extended periods, except my saw mix in the winter.

I haven't had any fuel related issues of any kind...so far, so good. I run 89 octane in everything except the saw mix which is 91 octane.

I live in CT and besides local airports, marinas or buying VP race gas, I can't get non ethanol conveniently or cheaply. I unfortunately have to deal with the ethanol crap for practical reasons.
I see a lot of fuel lines that are just fine with the non ethanol gas and as soon as they get introduced to the ethanol variety, a majority of them fail within a week or so. I generally replace nearly all fuel lines with Tygon whether they need it or not. Tygon holds up well to ethanol, but over a very long period of time (years) it will become stiff, but that's much better than dealing with lines that split/crack or dissolve completely.
Ethanol definitely suks for sure...:msp_mad:

YES!!!!! you so right the new gas just @#$%&*!!things up, non E-gas is the only way to go, we started finding this about two to three years ago.
I 'v tried to warn everyone about the bad affects of Ethanol-gas, and still people will look at you like your crazy, if you can find non-e-gas 91-92oct use it and change your fuel filters and rekit the carb as soon as you can, the ethanol plays hell on the whole thing even fuel tanks and caps. I'v done at least 20+ small engines in the last two years with the same problems

I guess I live in a good part of the country since we can get real gas in about 10 stations within a half hour. My dad bought some gas for the mower with ethanol in it and 2 weeks later it didn't smell like gas should.

Story on NPR a few weeks back: 15% ethanol has been tested and will be tested more, will be sold in some stations when final approval is given. They said that stations will not be required to sell it, it will be their option. Of course, that will likely change, if it starts being sold at all. I will try to find the story link on the web and come back later and add it to this post.....

“I drive about 60 miles round trip to The Dalles Oregon to buy non ethanol fuel for my saws and woodsplitter. Last year My splitter
went to crap, would run worth a spit. Took the engine to a mechanic, he said first thing without starting it, "you used ethanol fuel in it" Then he told me to always go to non ethanol stations for chainsaw and woodsplitter fuel. ALso to add Stabilizer to my fuel. No problems since then. Cheaper to go buy 10 gallons of non ethanol at a time than to rebuild saws and splitter. Good luck with finding non ethanol in your area.

I just made the 15 mile trip one way to get some non ethanol fuel. It's the only place I know, everybody else says they can't get it but guy at the station I went to said that any station that wanted it could get it. Non ethanol gas is about 30 to 40 cents higher in price than ethanol junk but I think it's worth it. Good to see orange gasoline again!

“just curious about elsewhere- most of the stations around me the fuel type can be selected at the pump and is dispensed thru a shared hose- so even if I buy nonethanol fuel, which i sometimes do,, i get some crap from the line, and maybe a shared pump ??

just curious - I guess you could pump the first gallon or two into the truck, but i never thought about it before

i buy my fuel at a high volume place and have had good luck so i am sticking with it based on the stories i hear ! Tanker is there daily, which i see as a good thing

Exactly what I do. Pump a couple of gallon's in the truck first and then fill the can. Not that much trouble. I only still keep a gallon or two going at a time.